Wednesday 13 May 2009

IMAGES

'...the second commandment does not forbid making images, even representations of God. It only forbids making them for the purpose of bowing to them in worship....the Scripture certainly intends to provide for its readers mental pictures of Jesus. It is, for most of us, psychologically impossible to read the New Testament (or even portions of the Old Testament like Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53) without forming such pictures. To forbid mental pictures of Jesus, while allowing mental pictures of other things in the gospel narrative, promotes Docetism, a view in which the Son of God did not really take on flesh. But our faith is to be focused on the real Jesus, whom, though unseen, we love: "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1: 8-9).'
John Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, p.460.